jay5 Posted July 3, 2005 Report Share Posted July 3, 2005 So while waiting on some stuff to complete a tele neck I decided to practice building a set neck style neck. Since I want to try a PRS style guitar after I finish my tele (whenever that may be ) I figured I would use my "down time" to get familiar with some of the steps with this type of neck. In all honesty, I was just bored and need somthing to do. Anyway, I had a precut mahogany neck blank i got from ebay a while back and it has been sitting in my room for at leat 6 months. I was just gonna resell it but I figured the practice was worth more than the $$ i would get for it. I started by making up an MDF template. It is based off a Gretsch and sized to fit the blank. I would have used a more stable material (birch ply, acrylic) for the template but since this was just a practice neck I figured MDF would suffice. I put the template aside and worked on cutting the truss rod slot. I had an LMI rod that I figured I would cut it for. I started by cutting the 3/16" slot to a depth of 3/8". Truss Slot I then needed to widen the slot to 1/4" and deepen it by 1/16" or so to make room for the keystock at the end of the rod. I just used a 1/4" straight bit and made a single pass. Widened Truss Slot Truss Rod in Place I dont think I really need to enlarge the access cavity for the nut but I think it looks kinda ugly so I will as soon as I get a proper gouge to do so. I then simply rough cut the headstock shape with the jig saw and attached the template with a bit of 2 sided tape and 2 screws. The screws are located inside where the tuner holes will be. Template Attached You can see how much extra material I left outside the template. I have very little confidence in my old jigsaw so I figured better safe than sorry. Now, thats way more material than I would want to take off with the router so I needed to trim it down. I found that if I use the heaviest grit sanding drum I have on my Robosander, the thing cant sand any closer than 1/32" or so. So I chucked the robosander up and trimmed down the headstock. I didnt go right to the template all the way around but it got me close enough and I wasnt worried about taking off too much material. At the Drill Press After Robosander Now all that was left to do was rout the headstock shape. I used a 3/4" template bit from Whiteside in my homebuilt router table. I did alot of climb cutting as I have never done routing like this in mahogany and wasnt sure exactly how it would react. Being that I sanded most of the excess material off, I had zero tear out and the wood was really easy to work. Template Bit I anticipated somthing going wrong as this was my first attempt but things actually have gone off without a hitch so far. Here is the finished headstock, pretty boring I know but it got me excited. Finished Headstock So my original intention was to rout the truss slot and shape the headstock and THEN throw it up on Ebay but I figure I might as well have a go at cutting the profile so, does anyone know what the correct taper would be? Its a 1 11/16" nut width and a 24.75" scale length. Does 2 1/4" at the 21st fret sound right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmrentis Posted July 3, 2005 Report Share Posted July 3, 2005 Fretboard Taper Its a little more than half way down the page! I got this from one of Wes' replies recently, you might have seen it already but it tells you how to figure out the taper for fretboard, but I don't think it will be any different for the neck, you will have to draw it out to scale and then measure to find out, it should give you all the answers you need. I hope. Good luck and it looked like you did a good job on that headstock. Right on man! I'll be doing the same thing soon! Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
javacody Posted August 21, 2005 Report Share Posted August 21, 2005 Jay5, this is a good start to a tutorial. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jay5 Posted August 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2005 Jay5, this is a good start to a tutorial. Ha, maybe I am planning two PRS copies in the very near future. I HOPE to be able to chronicle the builds here for everyone. I havent posted much about my tele as It has been like a 10 month affair aquiring tools and materials and what not. Hopefully I will have everything for the PRS's in a month or so so I can just build them and not have to wait for a new router bit or a fret caul or whatever. Those necks should be very similar and I will actually be milling the neck from rough stock so I can show the whole process. Well see! BTW, I still have that Airline build in the wings, cant wait to attack that one too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jehle Posted August 22, 2005 Report Share Posted August 22, 2005 That's some might nice clean work for just pratice. Now you'll have to build the rest of the guitar for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jay5 Posted August 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2005 Well, I actually sold that neck on ebay. Its tough being in college and trying to find money for tools and parts and whatnot. I did finish the taper on the neck though. I'll try to find a pic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jay5 Posted August 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2005 There is the neck profiled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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